I cannot even believe how much time I have spent solving sibling squabbles. It can consume an entire day.
I learned of Dr. Kevin Leman author of Have A New Kid by Friday. I saw his advice on sibling arguing on Focus on the Family's website. In a nutshell it was to stay out of it. That has been a huge relief for me already. I am constantly getting pulled into the dumbest arguments. Too many times I have applied time outs to an obvious offense only to find out later that an older smarter sibling was manipulating a younger child to a point of exploding in anger. Oh, but the older ones can play it so innocent. "He just hit me Mom, for NO reason!"
Siblings will compete if there is anyone who can declare a winner. I am not going to do it for them. I have kids come to report all kinds of offenses and everytime I an relieved when I remember the kindest thing I can do is stay out of the battle.
No comments:
Post a Comment